Exxon's PNG InterOil plan has hit some hurdles
The company's bid comes unstuck over undervalued gas reserves
ExxonMobil is running into new hurdles as it tries to buy Papua New Guinea (PNG)-based gas explorer InterOil. The move would give it a dominant role in one of Asia-Pacific's most competitively priced sources of liquefied natural gas. Despite implicit endorsement from the PNG government and after trumping rival takeover efforts by Woodside Energy and Oil Search, Exxon's move is being thwarted by InterOil's founder and third-largest shareholder, Phil Mulacek, who says the bids still significantly undervalue the target's hydrocarbon assets. Exxon launched an $2.5bn unsolicited scrip-based bid - a bid offering shares instead of cash - for InterOil in mid-2016 but raised this to around $3.9bn in
Also in this section
9 January 2026
The Latin American producer’s crude prospects rely on a multi-pronged approach where even the relatively easy wins will take considerable time, effort and cost
9 January 2026
While many forecasters are reasserting the importance of oil and gas, petrostates should be under no illusion things are changing, and faster than they might think
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
